ASRock Announces Radeon RX 5700 Challenger 8G OC Series: First with Custom Cooling

Factory Overclocks and Custom Cooling Have Arrived

ASRock has announced their Radeon RX 5700 Challenger 8G OC series with new RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 designs, bringing custom cooling to Navi ahead of what will inevitably be a deluge of aftermarket designs from the various AMD board partners.

What do these Challenger graphics cards bring to the table – other than eschewing the maligned blower design of AMD’s reference cards? Before getting to the cooler let’s explore the specs.

You will remember that AMD released a special 50th Anniversary Edition of the RX 5700 XT, with higher clock speeds than the standard version, and at a $50 premium. This new ASRock RX 5700 XT won’t quite reach the 50th Anniversary card out of the box, but it does offer a modest factory OC with its 1650 MHz Base Clock, 1795 Game Clock, and (stock) 1905 Boost Clock, compared to the standard version’s 1605/1755/1905 MHz.

For the non-XT RX 5700 ASRock’s Challenger 8G OC is clocked at 1515 MHz Base, 1675 MHz Game, and 1725 MHz Boost, while the stock version is 1465/1625/1725 MHz.

As to the cooler, ASRock is providing a dual 100mm fan design with 4 copper heat pipes sized “up to 8mm to enhance the heat dissipation effect”, and at least the RX 5700 XT Challenger 8G OC card also features an aluminum backplate (though both cards picture a backplate so this may be an error in the press release).

We await pricing and availability info.